FG Promises To Deliver Badagry Port By 2021

The federal government has said that it hopes to conclude the Badagry deep seaport by 2021.

Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this while addressing the media alongside two other ministers at the state house after the weekly Federal Executive Council Meeting.

Mohammed said the $2.56 billion project would be funded by public-private sector partnership.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, also said the project remains in line with the administration’s macroeconomic policies to fund its infrastructure.

He said, “There is transparency and accountability on the private side of the economy than we have on the public side of our economic life,

“As for the Badagry port, well, it is a port that is long overdue… Our ports, in terms of technology, are behind maritime transport industry; there are bigger vessels being built across the world and they require larger depths in other to berth.

“Some of our competitors on the continent like Djibouti are building bigger ports, so if we don’t build this port, we risk becoming noncompetitive and we risk a threat to our maritime, in the sense that they become a port of trans-shipment instead of original destination.

“That is the business and economic basis for the development of this port,” Fashola said.

He added that the fact that all of the financing for the project will come from the private sector “is consistent with what this government stands for in terms of allowing private capital… for the development of our people.”

Fashola said that the project was delayed due to the past administration’s inability to grant approval for the project.

Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, corroborated Fashola, saying that the money needed for the project would not be contributed by either the federal government or the Lagos state government.